This is the second of a two-part blog on Mickelson National Golf Club. Click here for Part I.

Immediately after lunch and an address by Phil Mickelson to new members of Mickelson National Golf Club at the Hamptons in Calgary last week I made a beeline for Steve Loy.

Golf division president of Scottsdale, Ariz.,’s Lagardère Unlimited, Loy has been the left-hander’s business manager/partner, friend and confidante throughout his 25-year professional career. That began when Mickelson turned professional after his final year at Arizona State University in 1992.

What had me wanting to speak with Loy was the golf course’s title. It seemed out of character. Since turning pro Mickelson never has tied his name to a single project or put it on any product or service. The closest he’s come is his initials on the back of Callaway’s Mack Daddy PM-Grind wedges. To have ‘Mickelson’ appear on the front end of this new Canadian course project seemed not just out of character, but an ambitious business leap based on profile.

“We’ve always had and always will have the opportunity to put Phil’s brand on things but we just don’t do it because frankly, we don’t want anything to fail, and lots of things do,” Loy explained. “That in itself says a lot about this project, how special it really is. Mickelson National is going to be a place where people are going to want to come. Take a place like Whisper Rock. Fifty-six tour players are dues-paying members there. Phil already has guys on tour interested here. To have Phil come here and confirm what they were doing on paper we turned this into an investment. We bought in. When he and I talked, just the two of us, he said, ‘This is going to be special, it will live through time and we need to be a part of it. I can see my family being part of this community. I love the mountains in the winter. I want to have something I can tag on to.’”

By signing off on use of his name (and likeness for marketing) Mickelson and Loy give Alberta’s newest golf course and the 1,750-acre Harmony community development instant credibility. For CEO Barry Ehlert and Windmill Golf Group, as well as community developers Qualico Communities and Bordeaux Properties, it’s a branding opportunity with almost ridiculous upside.

“It took us six months to work out the details but I know from a branding perspective it’s evident what this gives us,” said Ehlert. “Phil under-promises and over-delivers on everything we’ve asked him to do. To have his name associated with the golf course, well, it’s very significant.”

Ehlert has been working on this project for the past eight years. And he comes by his golf acumen honestly. His father designed and operated a number of courses in the province and his grandfather before him ran a nine-hole facility in Southern Alberta so he’s been immersed in the industry his entire life. Originally the development 15 minutes outside of Calagary near Springbank was slated to be co-designed by NBC commentator Johnny Miller and then Calgary resident and PGA Tour winner Stephen Ames. It never happened. Negotiations fell apart. Windmill moved on. Landing Mickelson came from nothing more than a simple email through the Mickelson Design website. He pinches himself constantly over what has happened since.

“This project has evolved over time but when I really knew it was going to happen I sat back and reflected and said, ‘If we want to do something special in Calgary what would we want to do?’ The first name that came to my mind was Phil Mickelson,” Ehlert said. “I wrote a note. Why not, right? I didn’t think it was even in the realm of possibility but I sent in the request through the website. It was then that I started working with Coach — Steve Loy — and Mike Angus on the details. Here we are.”

Mickelson and Smith do not do many courses. And they will not going forward. Loy says his client and his design partner may wind up doing a maximum of 10 during Mickelson’s entire career. In addition to Whisper Rock in Arizona the duo has completed projects in Kumming and Shanghai, China (a third was closed by the government over a year ago). Mickelson is also in the midst of a renovation of Torrey Pines’ North Course in La Jolla, Calif. What he and Smith individually bring to the table, according to the principles, is what gives the partnership its chemistry. In a sense the Mickelson-Smith design team is a bit of a next generation version of Cabot Cliff’s designers, Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.

“We complement each other really well,” Mickelson said in a post press conference interview. “The reason is Rick is so visual. He sees the angles, the highs, the lows and the way things should meander off tee boxes. I look at how it’s going to play; what shot do I have; how does the ball react, how the ball moves along the ground. We wouldn’t be as good without one another.”

Added Smith: “From the beginning we start to talk grading concepts, we start to do sketches, we communicate and review every one of those and we communicate via phone all the time. I was with him at Firestone not long ago. This is not just ‘put his name on it.’ He’s very, very involved. I’ll fly and see him whenever I feel it’s necessary.”

As Mickelson talked about his design vision for Mickelson National and the philosophy he has for all of his projects his passion was evident. He and Smith have visited and played courses around the world with the intention of infusing, but never copying, some of those same design principles into their finished golf landscapes. Referenced during the press conference as influencing what the final outcome in Calgary will be was Augusta National, Ireland’s Lahinch, Chicago Golf Club and Riviera. Classic course designers Harry Colt, Seth Raynor, Alister Mackenzie and George Thomas are all admired by the Mickelson-Smith design team and key influencers in their design concepts.

“For me, course design is a great opportunity to get my artistic side out and also to showcase what I know and believe in my heart to be the way golf should be,” Mickelson said during our conversation. “For us to have an opportunity like this one, especially where it’s a blank canvas is pretty rare. I mean 15 years ago when I did Whisper Rock, my first course, we moved 80,000 yards of dirt. There, we just moved a golf course into the natural setting. Here we have the chance to do anything we want. As long as we put that time and effort in it’s going to be a fantastic facility. What’s been fun for Rick and me and Mike is sitting down, have a glass of wine, then talk about the holes, talk ideas, talk ideas of other courses. We just all love talking about golf course design.”

Specifically what do Mickelson and Smith want to do at Mickelson National? According to the three-time Masters champion it starts with the ground game.

“That to me is most critical,” he said. “In my opinion it’s why golf is suffering because of the overly difficult courses that have been created where you have to fly balls over hazards. People don’t have that ability so they don’t enjoy the experience. I want people walking off this golf course saying that was really fun. I enjoyed the challenge.”

Mickelson considers Augusta National to be a great golf course. That might be the height of understatement but his reference is well intentioned. It focuses on the Masters home being an ideal course for all player types.

“We go out there, it’s very challenging for good players, has very difficult greens but the average guy never loses his ball at Augusta. He always has a shot, always has a chance to putt the ball on the green. I loved Whistling Straits for the PGA, it’s a great site for a major championship however every player that plays that golf course winds up in a pit they can’t get out of. They take four to five swipes, they pick up and go to the next hole. I don’t want players to have that experience here. I want them to have more of the Augusta experience of enjoying the round, always having a shot, finding his ball,” Mickelson points out.

That being said the designer offers no uncertain terms of wanting to see an RBC Canadian Open or other high-profile championships played on spectator-friendly Mickelson National. He continues to reference Canada’s national open as a future goal for the project. Mickelson and Loy plan on speaking directly with RBC and Golf Canada about those prospects. There are also financial synergies in play here. RBC apparently has “significant” involvement with the monetary aspects of Mickelson National Golf Club of Canada and the Harmony development.

“Phil said to me just yesterday when we were standing here (on the 11th tee), ‘I don’t want to oversell this but in some ways this might turn out to be the best tournament golf course I’ve ever seen,’” Ehlert said. “‘We stand here you’re going to see so much. I’m going to do everything in my power with RBC and Golf Canada to get the Canadian Open here.’ Phil’s words, not mine.”